Marvin

@thewookie1 Blast, you're right. There's a 7th round pick in the offing...

Look at the teams targetting our vets and see whom they are disappointed with but are still effective (e.g., Brad May), can't fit in their line-up (e.g., Mike Peca), can't afford next year (e.g., Stu Barnes), want to move for youth (e.g., Darryl Shannon), etc. who play with a gritty mindset. IMHO, you are more likely to get these players in the kinds trades the Sabres are likely to make -- even as throw-ins. Once we replace RK, flooding the organisation with these kinds of players could help the culture immediately. Imagine rolling out an analogue of May-Eichel-Reinhart (May did well with Hawerchuk and Khmylev), Skinner-Cozens-Barnes, Olofsson-Peca-Ruotsalainen, the LOG line, plus Asplund, Lazar, and Quinn in reserve at forward. Now, make our defence McCabe-Ristolainen, Dahlin-Borgen, Shannon-Jokiharu with Bryson and Pilut in reserve. Keep Ullmark and add an NHL-level goaltender. All I added were a trio of 3rd-4th liners and a bottom-pair D when the Sabres got them and then promoted a couple of youngsters. IMHO, I made a playoff-worthy line-up which is about $8M cheaper than this year's team and would be a helluvalot more fun to watch.

Undergrad applied math majors call it "sadistics" for a reason.

1. Assume we retain 25-50% on Staal, Hall, Miller, and Montour. 1.a. Do we want just a pick, a player and a pick, or just players? 1.b. For any player acquired, what percentage are AHL vets, low-end NHLers, project prospects, and decent prospects? 2. Who else do you move out? 2.a. Are there players you just want to dump? 2.b. Whom do you think you could move in a hockey trade? What would you look for in return?

In the official documentation which the NHL has released to hockey historians, the quasi-official cut-off for the points percentage of an all-time awful team is 0.250, or 28 points this year. We have a realistic shot at it.

Let's seen. 2.5 hours is 6 episodes of Doctor Who. I could watch the entire telesnap reconstruction of "Fury from the Deep." Let's see. A complete copy of the audio. 1 photograph of what was happening on screen about every 20 seconds. Splices of actual clips of the original film to remind me of what "normal" looks like. Feels just like watching the Sabres playing relative to a real hockey team.

I always assume that people have a reason for doing something that seems good to them, no matter what I think. Let me use a silly idea which my brother hit on that is consistent with the facts but would seem ridiculous from every other angle. Repeat, this is a hypothetical, silly idea merely to show that it is entirely possible that everyone we know who has spoken publicly is completely above board. Suppose you are KA and have complete control from T&KP and that money is no object. Let us assume that you want to fire RK because you agree with your fans and former peers from the Sabres that he is a bad coach. But you have a logical directive from above to keep Jack and Sam happy -- and Jack and Sam like RK so much that their condition for not demanding a trade is that RK stays coach. You would be in an impossible spot. I personally would fire RK so fast it would make your head spin even though defying your boss in this situation would essentially have you blackballed. Do you take that chance? Now this is obviously ridiculous, but KA could be in a bind like this, probably with some combination of money, control, inexperience, and players' feelings each having a role. But he would still be in a similar bind. How do you feel about taking that chance? I have taken chances like that. Most of the time, it worked out fine, but let me give you a few negative examples. I defended my religiosity against atheists in the math department I was in and would not accept that this, ipso facto, made me intellectually inferior to even the dumbest atheist.. When asked why my students did not do as well in Math Reform classes in the 1990's, I told the Math Ed specialists that I was philosophically opposed to the New New Math. Both groups made my life hell for my last 2 years of grad school and I see a psychiatrist now in part because I have so much negativity associated with what is my dream job of being a research mathematician -- and I will never take my dream job because of this. That was aside from being blackballed from the Columbus, OH. bridge centre for defending being a Buffalo sports fan in 1997; they asserted that I was inferior as a bridge player because I was from Buffalo and am an N-word. From my angle, the obvious is suddenly not so obvious.

This is so damn funny if it weren't for all the calls for Pegula to move the team to Hamilton which we will have to hear for the next two decades.

I could stand taking a gritty marginal forward with a pick to cushion the kids whenever I trade Staal, Hall, Montour, Miller, et al. Some of them can play up here, but with guys who play the game right. For reference, look at the last game at the Aud. Many of those players did not have long careers in the NHL, but we remember them fondly for a good reason: they let it all hang out every game. I could handle watching those kind of players here aside from Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, Olofsson, Cozens, Dahlin, Ristolainen, Bryson, et al. Among other things, maybe they will bring a spirit we have not seen from this team since the unlikely run to their last playoff spot. As a defence of the players on the tank teams of 2013-5, I went to 5 games towards the end of the 2014 season and 10 games in the 2014-5 season. They were overmatched, but they did work hard. They were really down on themselves when undermined by GMTM, which may have looked like quitting to others. But they did grimly play the best they could.

Thanks for your perspective.

Point of fact: Before the Pegulas took over, the Buffalo Sabres missed the playoffs 11 times (1970-1, 1971-2, 1973-4, 1985-6, 1986-7, 1995-6, 2001-2, 2002-3, 2003-4, 2007-8, and 2008-9). Three of those were as an expansion team back when they were designed to have talent like the Sabres do now, one was an ownership transition with the Knoxes, and three others were due to the Rigas's problems. This sucks.

They soooooooooooo deserve this.

Hey! A straw I can grab at! Maybe GMKA looks for guys who play the game like he did. Oh, heck. Now I woke up.

Park at UB (Free). Then take the $4 round trip train ticket.

They deserve the embarrassment. Krueger's continued presence is 100% unacceptable. Period.

The SPECTRE of RK. BTW, GM Daniel King did an analysis of a game based on the one in the movie recently.

Yes. I know some people don't like him because he is defencively-oriented. Hey, we all fight the good fight regardless of what side we are today.

I've written code for things like the channel view and selection services used by Verizon, Spectrum, Charter, etc. with dozens of classes which was less convoluted than this level of thinking.

Even if he's not, it's like Derrick Burroughs. Shut him down now -- it could save his life.

I am not that patient. I am trying to start a ground swell from the hockey world that makes the Pegulas look like idiots for not hiring an experienced coach before today. I hope that when fans can go back to the games, it will be too late to start "Fire Krueger" chants and Boudreau, Gallant, etc. are getting cheered by the fans instead. I am very angry. We have the Marty Schottenheimer of NHL coaches asking for the job and we won't ****ing give it to him.

Maybe you and other season ticket holders should tell Rob Ray on WGR when he is on before the pre-game. And if that doesn't cause a move, call CFAN 590 in Toronto and tell them. That will make keeping RK even less tenable.

For Boudreau and Gallant, Buffalo may be ideal. I remember Jacques Demers getting a big boost when he took the Dead Things of 1985-6 to the semi-finalist Red Wings overnight in 1986-7. The joke was no one knew he was in Haiti because he spoke French and learnt voodoo to raise the dead.

If he can heal well enough AND we get a good, established coach.

Ooh! Ahh! Sabres on the Golf Course.

I think we need to look at Pegula's business results. He has always -- and I mean always -- targetted young up-and-comers whom he can grow with. GMTM, GMJB, GMKA, Housley, RK, and a guy from college are all consistent with his temperament. Take a look at some of his other side-businesses listed on his Wikipedia page. They have monstrous turnover early on and several failures. Aside on Pegula's finances: Pegula is allegedly worth more now than he was when he purchased the Sabres, but he is far less liquid after buying the Bills. Apparently, the rumoured yacht is for real and where a lot of his current liquidity went. Once this season is over and the league is functioning normally, I expect the Sabres to acting a bit more sensibly on some fronts.